Under military rule, Venezuela oil workers quit in a stampede

Chauffeured around in a sleek black pick-up, the head of Venezuela’s oil industry, Major General Manuel Quevedo, last month toured a joint venture with U.S. major Chevron. FILE PHOTO: A man wears a cap with the logo of PDVSA as he attends the swear-in ceremony of the new board of directors of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA in Caracas, Venezuela January 31, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Bello/File Photo Flanked by other trucks carrying security guards, Quevedo passed a handful of workers waiting by an oil well cluster. They wanted a word with the OPEC nation’s oil minister and president of its state-run oil firm, PDVSA [PDVSA.UL], about the sorry state of the company. Quevedo and his caravan drove on by. “He didn’t get out to ask workers about what is going on,” said Jesus Tabata, a union leader who works on a rig in the oil-rich Orinoco Belt. […]